Comments on: Curtis White, The Spirit of Disobedience, 2

By: Angela Anderson

Angela Anderson — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 04:34:47 +0000

I disagree with Erica I think the Christian golden rule is something Americans should try and live by. It’s do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The golden rule is saying if you would like to be respected , you should respect others, and it does not encourage revenge. I really liked this section of White’s book. I never looked at Office Space with the view White has. I never looked at the end as a betrayal, but when I thought about what White said he had a really good point. The main character ended up leaving his job, but still ended up conforming. I also like his comments on the Da Vinci Code. I really enjoyed the book, but I understand White’s reasoning saying, “The Da Vinci Code’s seriousness is deeply unserious.” (White 34) The book was a work of fiction and presents many things as truths, typical mass society easily can confuse the two.

By: Erica Spurgeon

Erica Spurgeon — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:49:23 +0000

First of all, I think that White looks to much into Office Space as a negative thing. Not only is Office Space humurous, but it is a good representation of the real workforce. To me, this movie does not show how our society sees problems but choses not to fix them. I see this movie as a way of letting the working class know that the problems they face are in fact real and noticiable and it’s nice to see Hollywood represent your side of the story.

As for the “Christian golden rule–do unto others as they do unto you” is not a rule anyone should live by, especially a true Christian. I believe that we are living by the golden rule today. If we feel that someone has betrayed us or hurt us, we go back to them and hurt them with our words or actoins. A true Christian or someone who wants to change the world for the better, does not follow the golden rule, because a “good” person would take the things that people have done to them–good or bad–and do only good unto others.

By: David Voelker

David Voelker — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:33:48 +0000

Here and in class, I think that we need further discussion of “radical evil.” What does it mean for evil to be institutionalized, as White argues?

By: William Schwartz

William Schwartz — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:31:55 +0000

To some degree, I agree with White! We live in a world in which people care more for power and money then for the other person. For most people this is the most important part of there life. But this also applies for companies. Companies no longer care for there employees, profit is the number one concern. Employees are no longer loyal to there employer, because they will just get replaced with someone younger. Companies are going overseas for cheaper product, and do not care if it is safe for the consumer or not. They buy the product cheap sell it for four times as much as what they had to pay for.

By: Stephanie Bellile

Stephanie Bellile — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:04:02 +0000

Office Space is a betrayal in the fact that it starts out with the main character deciding that he isn’t going to work, because he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to give into the Capitalist society in which we live in, but actually, White sees him as just as bad. Peter tells the company that there is no motivation to work harder, because he doesn’t get paid more. White says,”Peter doesn’t want freedom, apparently. He doesn’t want creativity or personal autonomy. He want’s “profit sharing.” In the end of the movie nothing changes and Peter conforms by getting another meaningless job as a construction worker.

By: Michelle Kostka

Michelle Kostka — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:53:22 +0000

I agree with Eric, when White talks about “radical evil” he is talking about how people today are consumed with wanting to gain power and fame. This prevents people from helping out other people as they are so consumed with their own being. This self consumption leads us to break the golden rule, we no longer do onto others what we would have them do to us.

By: Eric Bansemar

Eric Bansemar — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:42:00 +0000

By “radical evil,” White means the evils of desire for power, fame, etc. become institutionalized. This has happened in America, where the desire for a good job and a good lifestlye has trumped everything else. Previously, the ideal had been for people to live the Christian way by giving without expecting anything in return. This had lead people to only wear the guise of Christianity, without any of the meaning underneath. All of this prevents people from living by the Golden Rule.

By: Richard Baker

Richard Baker — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:25:25 +0000

Curtis White cynically opposes capitalism and the free market economy with attacks on “self discipline” he exposes in the publishing and entertainment (movies) in popular culture. Because, as he put it, the story is in a “frightening” way the truth that “our dominant Christian culture anticipates this ‘world laid waste’ as if it were good or at least inevitable way” (32).. The fraudulent books and movies that bait and switch, although unintentionally, deceive us with their “familiar ephemeral enthusiasm, and willingness to stimulate ‘market’” (32) and the betrayal is in ourselves falling prey to the very thing we want to see destroyed, our society of “peasure-commodity” and spiritual failure. But, he suggests, like Thoreau, there is a meaningfulness in life that we are “seeking” in these and other forms of knowledge that must be taken seriously. I’m excited to learn more about his suggested pragmatic solution of disobedience in order to avert the inevitability of the evil that “our social double bind” will self destruct.

By: Mike Pelnar

Mike Pelnar — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:26:03 +0000

I like the point he makes early on in the reading about how as much as we despise the current state of affairs regarding the consumpution culture that we live in with its depletion of the Earths resources, the abject poverty it causes and, degrading working conditions, that we still fear the break up of that system. He states that this is because even though we do not like to work we depend on our jobs in order to survive in the modern world. The story about the college woman who worked at a debt collection agency was very interesting. Although she despised her job and the way she had to threaten those most in need, she depended on this job in order for her to stay in school and pay the bills.